The subject matter disclosed herein relates to a centrifuge and in particular to a portable centrifuge for determining a patient's hematocrit.
Blood can be fractionated, and the different fractions of the blood can be used to diagnose a patient to determine their medical needs. Under the influence of gravity or centrifugal force, blood spontaneously sediments into three layers. At equilibrium, the top low-density layer is a straw-colored clear fluid called plasma. Plasma is a water solution of salts, metabolites, peptides, and many proteins ranging from small (insulin) to very large (complement components).
The bottom, high-density layer is a deep red viscous fluid composed of red blood cells (erythrocytes) specialized for oxygen transport. The relative volume of whole blood that consists of erythrocytes is called the hematocrit, and in normal human beings this can range from about 37% to about 52% of whole blood.
The intermediate layer is the smallest, appearing as a thin white band above the erythrocyte layer and below the plasma layer; this is called the buffy coat.
It is often desirable to check the patient's hematocrit to determine if the amount of red blood cells in the patient's blood is within normal ranges, or if it is low (anemic) or high (polycythemic). It may be desired to perform this analysis frequently to check the effectiveness of treatments or to determine a change in the patient's condition. The processing of blood typically requires significant capital investment in centrifugation equipment, lab space and skilled personnel to process the samples. It should be appreciated that it is often difficult to perform this analysis in areas where the local environment or infrastructure does not provide the economic resources for equipment or the skilled personnel needed to perform the analysis.
Accordingly, while existing centrifuges are suitable for their intended purposes the need for improvement remains, particularly in providing a centrifuge and system that can be used to check a patient's hematocrit in remote or low resource areas.